Multimodal monitoring of brain activity, physiology, and neurochemistry is an important approach to gain insight into brain function, modulation, and pathology. With recent progress in micro- and nanotechnology, micro-nano-implants have become important catalysts in advancing brain research. However, to date, only a limited number of brain parameters have been measured simultaneously in awake animals in spite of significant recent progress in sensor technology. Here we have provided a cost and time effective approach to designing a headstage to conduct a multimodality brain monitoring in freely moving animals...

Valproic acid (VA) is a branch chain fatty acid that is widely used to treat epilepsy and convulsion. Recent studies show that VA can also be used to treat migraine headaches, bipolar disorder, and other diseases such as Alzheimer disease. However, clinical treatment with VA may cause hepatotoxicity, bone marrow suppression, and hyperammonemic encephalopathy. Valproic acid is also a known human teratogen. Because of the potential cytotoxic effects of VA and its major metabolite, 2-propyl 4-pentenoic acid (4-ene VA), VA plasma concentrations must be closely monitored during clinical applications of VA in order to avoid severe side effects...

Epilepsy is a non-communicable central nervous system disorder that affects over 60 million people worldwide. The developments in epilepsy treatment face major hurdles due to drug resistance and disease recurrence after reduction in medication. Nano-technological anti-epileptic drug (AED) delivery systems have recently garnered attention due to their ability to cross the blood brain barrier, improved selectivity and potential for sustained drug delivery to the brain. This review focuses on several nano-based AED delivery systems, including liposomes, nano-emulsions, polymeric nanoparticles, solid-lipid nanoparticles and magnetic nanoparticles...

The amygdaloid complex is a key brain structure involved in the expression of behaviors and emotions such as learning, fear, and anxiety. Brain diseases including depression, epilepsy, autism, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's disease, have been associated with amygdala dysfunction. For several decades, neuroanatomical, neurophysiological, volumetric, and cognitive approaches have been the gold standard techniques employed to characterize the amygdala functionality. However, little attention has been focused specifically on the molecular composition of the human amygdala from the perspective of proteomics...

Animal venoms are important sources for finding new pharmaceutical lead molecules. We used an analytical platform for initial rapid screening and identification of bioactive compounds from these venoms followed by fast and straightforward LC-MS only guided purification to obtain bioactives for further chemical and biological studies. The analytical platform consists of a nano-LC separation coupled post-column to high-resolution mass spectrometry and parallel on-line bioaffinity profiling for the acetylcholine binding protein (AChBP) in a chip based fluorescent enhancement based bioassay...

Intracranial electrocortical recording and stimulation can provide unique knowledge about functional brain anatomy in patients undergoing brain surgery. This approach is commonly used in the treatment of medically refractory epilepsy. However, it can be very difficult to integrate the results of cortical recordings with other brain mapping modalities, particularly functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The ability to integrate imaging and electrophysiological information with simultaneous subdural electrocortical recording/stimulation and fMRI could offer significant insight for cognitive and systems neuroscience as well as for clinical neurology, particularly for patients with epilepsy or functional disorders...

Experimental support for the transporter hypothesis of drug resistance in epilepsies has triggered efforts developing and validating approaches to overcome enhanced blood-brain barrier efflux transport. Testing in rodent models has rendered proof-of-concept for an add-on therapy with antiepileptic drugs. However, further development of the approach would require tolerability considerations as efflux transporters serve an important protective function throughout the body limiting distribution of harmful xenobiotics...

Epilepsy is a chronic disorder characterized by repeated seizures resulting from abnormal activation of neurons in the brain. Although mutations in genes related to Na(+), K(+), Ca(2+) channels have been defined, few studies show intracellular protein changes. We have used proteomics to investigate the expression of soluble proteins in a genetic rat model of absence epilepsy "Genetic Absence Epilepsy Rats from Strasbourg (GAERS)". The advantage of this technique is its high throughput quantitative and qualitative detection of all proteins with their post-translational modifications at a given time...

The 39th Annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience was held in Chicago, Illinois, USA from 17 to 21 October, 2009. The conference was attended by more than 33,000 delegates from across the globe including scientists from both basic and clinical settings. Co-incidentally, this year, the scientific community is commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of the famous English naturalist and biologist, Charles Darwin, who described the theory of natural selection. Keeping its traditions, the congress discussed various new advances in the area of neuroscience...